The Food Network host of Chopped, Ted Allen, will return to his home state of Ohio this weekend to host a 3 city fundraiser for the AIDS Resource Center Ohio. In a recent phone interview with Mr Allen, he shared that “Too many peole mistakenly believe that AIDS isn’t anything to talk about anymore. We have too many young people, who didn’t see the deaths in the 80″s and 90’d and don’t know the disaster we’ve lived through.
It’s great that we have medicines and treatments and preventative options but too many of our youth need to realize that HIV is 100% preventable. Meds are expensive and have side affects, this isn’t something you just take a pill for and forget. Almost 1/2 of new infections are 13-24 years old. African American women are hugely impacted by HIV. ” He shared that it’s his honor to serve as the Chair of this statewide fundraiser.
Ted Allen first received national attention as on of the hosts of the 2003-2007 Bravo series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
We asked Ted to tell us about his times on that show:
How about just some cheese, eggs, mustard, mayo and lamb chops. I’s so sick of gummy bears and all the weird stuff. Think about it- it’s the hardest show there is. It’s set up for failure. Three of the 4 fail. Who can cook amazing things in 20 minutes when they start out as bone in 3 pound leg of lamb? It’s just hard. And the judges want you to succeed, they want to eat good food!
I asked him if there were any shows that went bad and couldn’t air:
As for a personal disaster, when I was writing for Chicago Magazine, I was having the Dining Editor Penny Pollack over to my house for brunch. I had made fresh cinnamon rolls and thought I’d leave them in the oven so they’d be warm and just as the doorbell rings I see a pool of butter and cinnamon pooling down the oven door onto my floor and my smoke alarm goes off. Welcome Penny….
Ted hosted another Food Network Show The Best Thing I Ever Ate, so of course we asked about those meals:
I’ve had so many, like at Minbar by Jose Andres, a tiny restaurant with 6 seats and more chefs than seats where they feed you one scrumptious morsel after another…. But I’ve also had a great burger at a neighborhood join in Brooklyn with hand ground beef and a perfectly cooked runny egg on top.
That’s the wonderful thing about food, there are so many great foods and international cuisines, you could have like 900 lifetimes of best meals …
That show was so much fun, I could be more of myself and have fun and go unscripted…
Or macaroni and cheese with kiolbassa- not so good for yo, but oh yum!